We now have a new web address for Our Adoption...His Glory. I was having problems uploading images to blogger, so I created a new blog at:
http://ouradoptionhisglory.wordpress.com/
From now on all new posts will only appear on the new blog. See ya' there!
Saturday, October 23, 2010
Friday, October 22, 2010
Travel Plans
From Chris:
We will be flying out of Birmingham on Saturday, October 30th at 8:05 in the morning. We will route through Minneapolis and Amsterdam before arriving in Kiev on Sunday at 4:50 in the evening (Kiev time). Kiev is eight hours ahead of Birmingham, so hopefully we will have some down time on Monday to recover from our jet lag. We will then have our appointment at the SDA on Tuesday. Pray that God will give us favor in the eyes of the government officials, orphanage staff and all who will be involved in the approval of our petition to adopt.
We have been quite busy over the last few days making travel plans, etc. We are continuing to see the hand of God at work in providing the financing that we need. I will post more on that next week. He is faithful!
Wednesday, October 20, 2010
Ukraine Bound!
From Chris:
We now have an appointment date with the SDA (State Department of Adoption) in Kiev! We received a call from our social worker yesterday morning informing us that our appointment is on November 2nd! So…I will be booking flights for us later today and we will fly out of Birmingham either on October 29th or 30th. That is less than two weeks from now, so please pray for us!
I would like to catch you all up on all the ways that God has shown His faithfulness to us since our last post. In mid-September we finally received all of the corrected paperwork for our dossier. About that same time, we discovered that we only owed another $192.14 in fees directly to our adoption agency, which is $1570.36 less than we thought we owed! (We thought we owed another $1762.50 in addition to the last payment of $1762.50 mentioned in the August 23rd post.) So that was a HUGE blessing from God. On September 23rd, our dossier was successfully submitted to Ukraine, at which time we had to wire $2500.00 to our facilitator (Sasha) in Ukraine. And wouldn’t you know it…by God’s providence, we had enough money to cover this fee and we still had almost $300.00 left over! Jana (our social worker) told us that we could probably expect to receive a travel date within 2-4 weeks.
The first week of October, we felt that God was leading us to have a yard sale to raise some of the funds that we still needed. We had been wanting to have a yard sale for awhile, but just kept putting it off (you know how that goes). So we went through all of the JUNK in our garage and realized that we had quite a bit that we could sell. Upon hearing about our yard sale, friends began to donate items to sell also. Our garage began to get more and more crowded as more and more donations began rolling in. We could not believe all the stuff that we had for the sale! We decided that we should have the yard sale on two successive Saturdays, October 9th and 16th. We were blessed to have friends and family that were able to help us on both Saturdays (We could not have done it without you guys). Both sales were extremely successful and we made a grand total of $1553.00 toward our adoption fund!
Three days later, on October 19th, we received the call from Jana about our travel date. The money from the yard sale plus other funds that we have saved and have had donated toward our adoption will more than cover the cost of our airline tickets (which I will purchase later this morning). EVERY TIME THAT WE HAVE HAD A PAYMENT DUE, WE HAVE HAD THE MONEY THAT WE HAVE NEEDED, always with a little bit left over! We will be wiring $8500.00 to Sasha on Monday, and then we will be taking around $7000.00 with us to Ukraine when we leave that weekend. We don't have the money in hand right now, but I have no reason to doubt that God will provide it. He has shown Himself faithful, over and over! We serve an amazing God! He is real, and He still works miracles!
This blog will be our main avenue of communication while we are in Ukraine, so check back regularly for updates. We love you all very much!
We now have an appointment date with the SDA (State Department of Adoption) in Kiev! We received a call from our social worker yesterday morning informing us that our appointment is on November 2nd! So…I will be booking flights for us later today and we will fly out of Birmingham either on October 29th or 30th. That is less than two weeks from now, so please pray for us!
I would like to catch you all up on all the ways that God has shown His faithfulness to us since our last post. In mid-September we finally received all of the corrected paperwork for our dossier. About that same time, we discovered that we only owed another $192.14 in fees directly to our adoption agency, which is $1570.36 less than we thought we owed! (We thought we owed another $1762.50 in addition to the last payment of $1762.50 mentioned in the August 23rd post.) So that was a HUGE blessing from God. On September 23rd, our dossier was successfully submitted to Ukraine, at which time we had to wire $2500.00 to our facilitator (Sasha) in Ukraine. And wouldn’t you know it…by God’s providence, we had enough money to cover this fee and we still had almost $300.00 left over! Jana (our social worker) told us that we could probably expect to receive a travel date within 2-4 weeks.
The first week of October, we felt that God was leading us to have a yard sale to raise some of the funds that we still needed. We had been wanting to have a yard sale for awhile, but just kept putting it off (you know how that goes). So we went through all of the JUNK in our garage and realized that we had quite a bit that we could sell. Upon hearing about our yard sale, friends began to donate items to sell also. Our garage began to get more and more crowded as more and more donations began rolling in. We could not believe all the stuff that we had for the sale! We decided that we should have the yard sale on two successive Saturdays, October 9th and 16th. We were blessed to have friends and family that were able to help us on both Saturdays (We could not have done it without you guys). Both sales were extremely successful and we made a grand total of $1553.00 toward our adoption fund!
Three days later, on October 19th, we received the call from Jana about our travel date. The money from the yard sale plus other funds that we have saved and have had donated toward our adoption will more than cover the cost of our airline tickets (which I will purchase later this morning). EVERY TIME THAT WE HAVE HAD A PAYMENT DUE, WE HAVE HAD THE MONEY THAT WE HAVE NEEDED, always with a little bit left over! We will be wiring $8500.00 to Sasha on Monday, and then we will be taking around $7000.00 with us to Ukraine when we leave that weekend. We don't have the money in hand right now, but I have no reason to doubt that God will provide it. He has shown Himself faithful, over and over! We serve an amazing God! He is real, and He still works miracles!
This blog will be our main avenue of communication while we are in Ukraine, so check back regularly for updates. We love you all very much!
Monday, August 23, 2010
God's To Do List
From Chris:
“I will extol you, my God and King, and bless your name forever and ever. Every day I will bless you and praise your name forever and ever. Great is the LORD, and greatly to be praised and his greatness is unsearchable.”
Psalm 145:1-3
God is amazing! He is so good to His children! Last week, Amy and I met with our social worker for our dossier review. At the meeting we discovered that the dossier is not quite ready to send to Ukraine yet, but should be as soon as we receive two final items of paperwork. The next payment for our adoption will be due when the dossier is submitted. The amount due for this next payment is $1762.50. Since our last adoption payment, we have received several donations from family and friends. The last donation that we received came the Friday before we met with our social worker. That donation brought our designated adoption funds up to $1771.17, which covers the amount due for our next payment with change left over! May God receive all the glory for the way that He has provided for this need!
I must confess that even in the midst of this awesome provision, my faith began to waver as I looked at the large amount of money that is still needed to complete our adoption. I know that numbers are irrelevant to God. I can look back even to previous posts on this blog and see how He has provided. I can look at the many ways that He provided for His children in the pages of scripture. And yet, I am ashamed to say, my faith wavers. God forgive me for my lack of trust!
I look at the numbers and I know that the only possible way that this adoption will be completed is for God to provide what is needed. I think Amy said it best when she stated that she had decided to “put this on God's To Do List.”
God, I praise You for Your provision for this adoption! I give You all the glory for the way that You have provided and for the ways that You will provide. I humbly ask that You would put this on Your “To Do List.” Thank you for Your grace and Your mercy!
“One generation shall commend your works to another, and shall declare your mighty acts. On the glorious splendor of your majesty, and on your wondrous works, I will meditate. They shall speak of the might of your awesome deeds, and I will declare your greatness. They shall pour forth the fame of your abundant goodness and shall sing aloud of your righteousness.”
Psalm 145:4-7
“I will extol you, my God and King, and bless your name forever and ever. Every day I will bless you and praise your name forever and ever. Great is the LORD, and greatly to be praised and his greatness is unsearchable.”
Psalm 145:1-3
God is amazing! He is so good to His children! Last week, Amy and I met with our social worker for our dossier review. At the meeting we discovered that the dossier is not quite ready to send to Ukraine yet, but should be as soon as we receive two final items of paperwork. The next payment for our adoption will be due when the dossier is submitted. The amount due for this next payment is $1762.50. Since our last adoption payment, we have received several donations from family and friends. The last donation that we received came the Friday before we met with our social worker. That donation brought our designated adoption funds up to $1771.17, which covers the amount due for our next payment with change left over! May God receive all the glory for the way that He has provided for this need!
I must confess that even in the midst of this awesome provision, my faith began to waver as I looked at the large amount of money that is still needed to complete our adoption. I know that numbers are irrelevant to God. I can look back even to previous posts on this blog and see how He has provided. I can look at the many ways that He provided for His children in the pages of scripture. And yet, I am ashamed to say, my faith wavers. God forgive me for my lack of trust!
I look at the numbers and I know that the only possible way that this adoption will be completed is for God to provide what is needed. I think Amy said it best when she stated that she had decided to “put this on God's To Do List.”
God, I praise You for Your provision for this adoption! I give You all the glory for the way that You have provided and for the ways that You will provide. I humbly ask that You would put this on Your “To Do List.” Thank you for Your grace and Your mercy!
“One generation shall commend your works to another, and shall declare your mighty acts. On the glorious splendor of your majesty, and on your wondrous works, I will meditate. They shall speak of the might of your awesome deeds, and I will declare your greatness. They shall pour forth the fame of your abundant goodness and shall sing aloud of your righteousness.”
Psalm 145:4-7
Monday, July 26, 2010
The Waiting Game Continues
From Amy:
Well it is time to finally update the ole blog! Obviously consistency with blogging is not our strong suit, but Chris and I definitely want to keep everyone updated about our adoption! So, here’s the latest…
We celebrated our 15th wedding anniversary on June 17th! I can’t believe how old we are getting, but I’m so glad God has given me such a wonderful life-partner in Chris.
Adoption-wise, we are currently waiting on one final piece of paperwork (hurry up Chase-Morgan!) to be completed so that we can meet with our social worker for our dossier review. NOTE: For those who have never heard of a “dossier,” it is just a fancy word that means “a legal file containing detailed records on a particular person/subject”. Once all our dossier documents are gathered and perfectly completed (with no errors whatsoever), we will mail them to Ukraine. (APPLAUSE PLEASE!!!) The goal is to mail them by September and hopefully travel to Ukraine in October. We are told if all goes smoothly, we can expect to remain in Ukraine for 4-6 weeks (minimum).
During the time we are there, we’ll meet with our adoption agency’s facilitator who will coordinate communication (translators), transportation (driver) and housing (furnished apt), and will assist us with the entire adoption process to include everything from buying food/clothes to navigating the Ukrainian court/legal system and interacting with orphanage administrators . It is overwhelming just to think about it! I am sure we’ll have plenty to blog about in the coming days!
At this point in the waiting game, we would ask you to pray for several things with us. First that God would continue to prepare the heart(s) of our child(ren) for his/her adoption (physically/emotionally into our family and spiritually into His). Second, that we might be prepared on every level for the inevitable challenges that will come and that we might trust God. And third, that God would grow our family daily in spiritual dependence on Him and that others might know Him as a result.
We are most grateful for our invaluable family and friends who are walking with us in true community as we prepare to be parents. Thank you for asking about our adoption and waiting alongside us. We love each and every one of you!
Well it is time to finally update the ole blog! Obviously consistency with blogging is not our strong suit, but Chris and I definitely want to keep everyone updated about our adoption! So, here’s the latest…
We celebrated our 15th wedding anniversary on June 17th! I can’t believe how old we are getting, but I’m so glad God has given me such a wonderful life-partner in Chris.
Adoption-wise, we are currently waiting on one final piece of paperwork (hurry up Chase-Morgan!) to be completed so that we can meet with our social worker for our dossier review. NOTE: For those who have never heard of a “dossier,” it is just a fancy word that means “a legal file containing detailed records on a particular person/subject”. Once all our dossier documents are gathered and perfectly completed (with no errors whatsoever), we will mail them to Ukraine. (APPLAUSE PLEASE!!!) The goal is to mail them by September and hopefully travel to Ukraine in October. We are told if all goes smoothly, we can expect to remain in Ukraine for 4-6 weeks (minimum).
During the time we are there, we’ll meet with our adoption agency’s facilitator who will coordinate communication (translators), transportation (driver) and housing (furnished apt), and will assist us with the entire adoption process to include everything from buying food/clothes to navigating the Ukrainian court/legal system and interacting with orphanage administrators . It is overwhelming just to think about it! I am sure we’ll have plenty to blog about in the coming days!
At this point in the waiting game, we would ask you to pray for several things with us. First that God would continue to prepare the heart(s) of our child(ren) for his/her adoption (physically/emotionally into our family and spiritually into His). Second, that we might be prepared on every level for the inevitable challenges that will come and that we might trust God. And third, that God would grow our family daily in spiritual dependence on Him and that others might know Him as a result.
We are most grateful for our invaluable family and friends who are walking with us in true community as we prepare to be parents. Thank you for asking about our adoption and waiting alongside us. We love each and every one of you!
Friday, February 26, 2010
God Does It Again!
From Chris:
The faithfulness of God continually amazes me. For the past few months we have been going through the tedious process of filling out paperwork, being interviewed, being fingerprinted (twice), and completing adoption education requirements. We finally have a completed home study. Praise God! Our home study has been approved by our adoption agency (Lifeline Children’s Services), but we are still waiting on the home study’s approval by immigration and DHR. We have seen God’s faithfulness throughout the process. We thank God for donations contributed by family and anonymous individuals that have helped us to meet our financial obligations for the adoption thus far. I received a call from our social worker earlier today and she shared some great news. An anonymous couple who were also planning on adopting a child from Eastern Europe had a change of plans and is no longer able to pursue adoption. They had raised some money that they were going to use for their adoption, and they felt led to give the money to another couple who is adopting from Eastern Europe. This anonymous couple felt that God was leading them to donate these funds to be used toward our adoption expenses! The amount will just about cover our next payment. God is so good to us! Before we started the adoption process, one of the things that always concerned me was the tremendous financial cost associated with adoption. If we had waited until we had all the money in hand before we started the adoption process, we would have missed out on God showing Himself faithful through every step of the process. So far, God has provided what we need just in time to meet each payment as it has been due. I am overwhelmed by God’s graciousness toward us! If any of you are considering adoption but are hesitating because of financial reasons…God will provide…Just trust Him. He is good!
The faithfulness of God continually amazes me. For the past few months we have been going through the tedious process of filling out paperwork, being interviewed, being fingerprinted (twice), and completing adoption education requirements. We finally have a completed home study. Praise God! Our home study has been approved by our adoption agency (Lifeline Children’s Services), but we are still waiting on the home study’s approval by immigration and DHR. We have seen God’s faithfulness throughout the process. We thank God for donations contributed by family and anonymous individuals that have helped us to meet our financial obligations for the adoption thus far. I received a call from our social worker earlier today and she shared some great news. An anonymous couple who were also planning on adopting a child from Eastern Europe had a change of plans and is no longer able to pursue adoption. They had raised some money that they were going to use for their adoption, and they felt led to give the money to another couple who is adopting from Eastern Europe. This anonymous couple felt that God was leading them to donate these funds to be used toward our adoption expenses! The amount will just about cover our next payment. God is so good to us! Before we started the adoption process, one of the things that always concerned me was the tremendous financial cost associated with adoption. If we had waited until we had all the money in hand before we started the adoption process, we would have missed out on God showing Himself faithful through every step of the process. So far, God has provided what we need just in time to meet each payment as it has been due. I am overwhelmed by God’s graciousness toward us! If any of you are considering adoption but are hesitating because of financial reasons…God will provide…Just trust Him. He is good!
Wednesday, October 7, 2009
Unexpected Emotion
From Amy:
“And so it looks like we’ll have Sarah home with us in time for Christmas!”…
Those were the words that opened the floodgates. That and the sheer excitement in her voice that could only be understood by a mother getting ready to meet her child for the first time in a country far away. A mother who has waited what seems like forever and missed out on all the typical “firsts” (cry, smile, step, tooth, etc.) was finally going to be united with her child. And you could just hear the longing expectation in her voice and the hope of what was to come. The love was already there.
The lady she was with listened politely and responded as appropriately as she could…“That’s great.” But clearly she did not “get it.” Perhaps her own fears prevented her from fully sharing in the joy of it all. But it didn’t matter. The little mother-to-be with a daughter waiting in China was thrilled to share the news of her child’s birth into their family. Nothing could dampen her joy – she was beaming.
So I grabbed my coffee and rushed out of Starbucks before the tears poured. It was so unexpected. For the past few weeks I have not really allowed myself to begin connecting with the reality of a child. I’ve been fully focused on the process and the paperwork, but resisting any expectations or emotions…almost like I was hiding behind a wall to protect myself from heartbreak…just in case the whole thing fell through somehow. I guess infertility has me well-trained to not get my hopes up. The idea of an actual child – a person – a girl with a name. Wow. And it hit me. My child has a name, too.
“And so it looks like we’ll have Sarah home with us in time for Christmas!”…
Those were the words that opened the floodgates. That and the sheer excitement in her voice that could only be understood by a mother getting ready to meet her child for the first time in a country far away. A mother who has waited what seems like forever and missed out on all the typical “firsts” (cry, smile, step, tooth, etc.) was finally going to be united with her child. And you could just hear the longing expectation in her voice and the hope of what was to come. The love was already there.
The lady she was with listened politely and responded as appropriately as she could…“That’s great.” But clearly she did not “get it.” Perhaps her own fears prevented her from fully sharing in the joy of it all. But it didn’t matter. The little mother-to-be with a daughter waiting in China was thrilled to share the news of her child’s birth into their family. Nothing could dampen her joy – she was beaming.
So I grabbed my coffee and rushed out of Starbucks before the tears poured. It was so unexpected. For the past few weeks I have not really allowed myself to begin connecting with the reality of a child. I’ve been fully focused on the process and the paperwork, but resisting any expectations or emotions…almost like I was hiding behind a wall to protect myself from heartbreak…just in case the whole thing fell through somehow. I guess infertility has me well-trained to not get my hopes up. The idea of an actual child – a person – a girl with a name. Wow. And it hit me. My child has a name, too.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)